Your Friends Make Known, O LORD, The Glorious Splendor Of Your Kingdom.

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
Reading I
Revelation 21:9b-14
The angel spoke to me, saying,
“Come here.
I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain
and showed me the holy city Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from God.
It gleamed with the splendor of God.
Its radiance was like that of a precious stone,
like jasper, clear as crystal.
It had a massive, high wall,
with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed
and on which names were inscribed,
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
There were three gates facing east,
three north, three south, and three west.
The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation,
on which were inscribed the twelve names
of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
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Responsorial
Psalm 145
Your friends make known, O Lord,
the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
Your friends make known, O Lord,
the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
Your friends make known, O Lord,
the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
Your friends make known, O Lord,
the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
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Gospel
John 1:45-51
Philip found Nathanael and told him,
“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote
in the law, and also the prophets,
Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
But Nathanael said to him,
“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him
and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.”
Nathanael said to him,
“How do you know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you,
I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Do you believe because I told you
that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this.”
And he said to him,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
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The first three gospels never mention Nathanael, and the fourth gospel never mentions Bartholomew. It’s probable, most scholars say, that they were one and the same person under different names. In the first three gospels Bartholomew is always mentioned with Philip, and in the fourth gospel Nathanael is always mentioned with Philip - a further reason to suspect that Bartholomew and Nathanael are one man.  

Nathanael was puzzled that Jesus seemed to know him already - and indeed to have a high opinion of him. “Before Philip called you,” Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree.” Palestine is a scorching hot country, and people often had a fig tree growing at the door of their house. Besides fruit it offered shade in the heat. It would be a place to sit and be quiet. It may be that Nathanael had been praying under the fig tree when Jesus spotted him earlier. “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile!” Jesus had said. Our faces, it may be, are never so transparent as when we are praying.

"Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?” Jesus said to him. “You will see greater things than these…. Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." The word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’. You will see the transparency of the Son of Man to God. Not just peace and rest in the shade of a tree, but entry into the counsels of the Father.

What is that to us? It is everything, because everything that is about Jesus is about us too. Sometimes what brings us to meditation is the need for peace and quiet, or the need for a certain openness and transparency. But we can hope for more than this. We can hope to become transparent to our ultimate source, we can hope “to see the angels of God ascending and descending.”

Today's Good News
Donagh O’Shea, O.P.